6. Maggio 2026
Cartizze: The Golden Pentagon of the Prosecco Hills
Just 107 hectares. Land worth 2 million euros per hectare. A natural amphitheatre in the heart of Valdobbiadene. Cartizze — the Golden Pentagon of the Prosecco hills — and I take you there.
There are places in the wine world that need no introduction.
Cartizze is one of them.
107 hectares. That is all. Less than a village. Less than a breath, in the scale of the wine world. The Golden Pentagon of the UNESCO hills of Valdobbiadene.
And yet what comes from these slopes is unlike anything else these hills produce.
A name from ancient hands.
The word Cartizze comes from the local dialect — gardiz, the wooden rack on which grapes were traditionally laid to dry, concentrating their sugars before pressing. Long before anyone spoke of DOCG or appellations, the farmers of this hillside already knew that their grapes were different. That they needed time. That they deserved patience.
They were right.
A natural amphitheatre.
Cartizze is not just a hill. It is a natural amphitheatre — a perfectly curved bowl of land between the hamlets of Santo Stefano, Saccol and San Pietro di Barbozza, in the heart of the Valdobbiadene municipality.
The exposure is almost entirely south-facing — the vines drink sunlight from morning to evening. The steep slopes force cold air to drain downward at night, creating dramatic temperature swings between day and night that concentrate aromas in the grape. The soil — ancient morainic deposits rich in minerals, layered over centuries into a deep complex clay — gives the wine a structure and depth that the flatlands cannot dream of.
This is what terroir means. Not a label. A place that makes a wine impossible to replicate anywhere else on earth.
The most precious land in the Prosecco hills.
The value of Cartizze land tells its own story — approximately two million euros per hectare. In a world where vineyard land is measured in prestige, that number places Cartizze among the most precious agricultural land in Italy.
There are no bargains here. There are only families who have held this land for generations and understand exactly what they are holding.
Dry — and proud of it.
Cartizze is traditionally produced as Dry — with a residual sugar that gives the wine a gentle, seductive sweetness that is never cloying, always balanced by the natural acidity of the Glera grape and the minerality of the soil.
This is the celebration wine of these hills. The bottle opened for weddings, for baptisms, for the moments that deserve something extraordinary. Not because it is expensive — though it is — but because its character matches the occasion. Generous, complex, joyful, long.
In recent years, some producers have begun making Cartizze as Extra Dry and Brut — drier, more mineral, more austere. Both are beautiful. Both are honest expressions of this extraordinary hillside.
As a sommelier who grew up in these hills, I find the traditional Dry the most honest — the one that tells the full story of what this land can do when it is not asked to be something it isn't.
What it tastes like.
Close your eyes and pour a glass of Cartizze.
The colour is a deeper gold than any other Prosecco from these hills — the light of long summer afternoons captured in the glass. The bubbles are fine and persistent, rising in an unbroken thread.
The nose opens slowly — ripe white peach, apple, pear, a suggestion of apricot, a whisper of white flowers and something mineral underneath, like wet stone after rain.
In the mouth it is round and generous, with a freshness that cuts through the sweetness cleanly. The finish is long — longer than you expect — with a mineral echo that stays with you after the glass is empty.
This is not a wine you drink. It is a wine you remember.
Come and stand on these slopes.
When you walk these hills with me, I take you to Cartizze. We stand on the hillside and look out over the Golden Pentagon of vines — 107 hectares of the most precious land in the Prosecco world, stretched out in the afternoon light.
I tell you the story of the families who have held this land for generations. We taste the wine in a small cellar, poured by the person who made it, in the place where it was born.
No tasting room in the world can give you this.
Book your private tour at orianancc.it